page_title: Martin Hammerich
section_title: Travels and early academic career
hierarchical_section_title: Martin Hammerich / Travels and early academic career
context_page_description: Martin Johannes Hammerich was a Danish art historian, educator, author and translator. He was part of the National Liberal movement and a member of the 1848 Danish Constituent Assembly. He was headmaster of Borgerdydskolerne from 1842 to 1867.
context_section_description: Hammerich's primary interests were philology and mythology, from Iceland to India. After his thesis he went abroad to continue his studies. He initially traveled to the University of Bonn  to study Sanskrit under professor August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845), and later continued to Oxford University  where he studied under English orientalist Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860). His next journey abroad, in 1838, took him to France, Italy and Greece.
  After his return to Denmark, he was a co-founder of the Liberal Student Society (Studentersamfund) alongside Carl Ploug  (1813-1894), Andreas Frederik Krieger (1817–1893), Ditlev Gothard Monrad (1811–1887) and others, briefly serving as its chairman. It was already shoot down by the university board (Consistorium) in 1840. In 1841–44, he was employed as acting docent in Sanskrit at the University. His interest in Ancient Indian culture had been inspired by reading  Sacontalá or The Fatal Ring as translated by Danish consul Hans West (1758-1811). In 1845, influenced by an improved version by Sanskrit scholar Otto von Böhtlingk (1815–1904), Hammerich published a Danish language translation entitled  Sacontala eller den uheldige Ring.
caption: Martin  Hammerich  by Constantin Hansen in (1835)
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